Quartet for the End of Time by Messiaen, Rohloff, De (2022/2022), Teatru Manoel, Valletta, Malta

In a prisoner-of-war camp during the early days of World War II, French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992) created his chamber music masterpiece Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time). Each movement relates to the apocalyptic Book of Revelation, vividly depicted in The Cloisters Apocalypse, an illuminated manuscript from around 1330. The quartet’s fury unfolds in whirling rhythms, but alongside them a vision of eternity sings beautifully in passages of ethereal calm.